TA English proficiency problems addressed
An MSA committee wants to look at English proficiency.
March 18, 2008
English proficiency of teaching assistants, an issue the Missouri Students Association Student Affairs Committee dealt with in the past, has again come up on the agenda.
The committee is beginning to deal with the issue, but no course of action has been determined, Committee Chairwoman Erin Moran said.
Moran said the committee wants to address the problem of students not understanding TAs.
Discussion of the topic began from students on the committee complaining about TAs, she said.
“We’re in the classes, so we’re dealing with this problem,” Moran said. “I’ve had teachers who can hardly speak English. They have the answer but can’t explain it.”
The committee does not plan to create a board, she said, because an International Teaching Assistant Program for evaluation already exists.
“The issue isn’t very well developed,” she said. “We just know there is a problem and we are in the beginning stages of trying to fix it.”
MSA and ITAP met last fall to discuss the problem, but the meetings ended without final resolution, Moran said.
ITAP coordinator Liz Tummons had a different perspective.
“Last year, we met with representatives from MSA and we looked at and talked about the issue, and they didn’t see any need for improvement,” she said.
Tummons had not heard of the committee’s plans to look into English proficiency again and was not sure what had changed, she said.
“I kind of thought it was settled, kind of thought they were happy with it,” Tummons said.
While the Student Affairs committee’s plan has not been determined, its ultimate goal is to figure out why students have this problem and communicate better with the ITAP to solve it, Moran said.
“We want to tell the board that they’re not working very efficiently, they’re not examining the grad students effectively,” Moran said.
Jennifer Claxton, chairwoman of the MSA Multicultural Issues committee, said she sees the topic as a very sensitive subject, although she does not know the direction Student Affairs plans to take it, she said.
“Some people are always going to have accents, no matter how good their English is,” she said. “This could be construed as trying to get rid of accents in the classroom, which is impossible.”
According to Claxton, a change by Student Affairs could seem ethnocentric, especially with so many TAs of multicultural backgrounds.
“It needs to be based off of can they teach or not, not can somebody understand, because that’s very ambiguous,” she said. “This is a learning institution, and you have to give people some leeway and time to adjust.”
Graduate students must pass an oral-English proficiency exam before taking on teaching positions, Tummons said.
The Speaking Proficiency English Assessment Kit is a recorded, 20-minute test to evaluate oral English-language production on a scale of 0-4, Tummons said. Candidates for a lab position need a 2, whereas teaching as a graduate instructor necessitates a 4.
TAs are also required to complete an American classroom cultural orientation. The first two semesters as TAs, graduate students participate in feedback programs, including anonymous responses from students, videotaped observation and analysis with faculty, and individual consultation on teaching.
She said she feels the overall ITAP program is successful.
“I would say we have the best program in the state,” she said. “It’s definitely better now than when I arrived two years ago.”
Still, Tummons admits there could be improvement.
“Like any class, a student’s performance may or may not reflect actual ability,” she said. “I think we can verify their English language proficiency, but there are a lot of other variables that make a good TA or a bad TA.”
Tummons expressed concern that students use language as a scapegoat for other problems.
“Many variables people have problems with are not language problems, and it’s more of an interaction problem,” she said. “Students perceive it as a language problem because they know the TA speaks a different language.”
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